


We Build Our Empire From Ruins And Smoke

by MageOfCole



Series: Sometimes, You Have To Burn [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Brainwashing, CT-5597 | Jesse Lives, CT-7567 | Rex Needs a Hug, Clone Empire, Dead Anakin Skywalker, Dead Sheev Palpatine, Emperor Cody AU, Episode: s07e12 Victory and Death, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Movie: Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, No Dialogue, Reconditioning, Reunions, Senator Rex AU, Short, Sibling Love, clone-centric, fuck palpatine, the clones deserve better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:21:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25456105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MageOfCole/pseuds/MageOfCole
Summary: It starts with Fives, but it doesn't end with him.The Republic is dead and the Empire's throne is empty, and Fox will be damned if he lets anyone claim it.
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody & CC-1010 | Fox, CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi, CT-7567 | Rex & Ahsoka Tano
Series: Sometimes, You Have To Burn [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1857082
Comments: 134
Kudos: 623
Collections: Commander Fox





	1. (FOX) And it burns.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CorranBlue](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CorranBlue/gifts), [Crab_Lad](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crab_Lad/gifts), [CobraOnTheCob](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CobraOnTheCob/gifts).



_(It starts with Fives._

_It starts with Fives as he stares at the terminal in front of him in numb horror, buzzing with the knowledge that whatever happened to Tup could happen to the rest of the Vode. They're all chipped; every single one of them has a chip in their heads, all of them, even the smallest of the tubies. Chips that could take away everything in them - good or bad - and leave them a shell that can't think beyond following orders._

_In that moment, Fives makes a desperate decision, to try and save them against everything that tells him that he’ll fail._

_He's not good at splicing, that was always Echo’s thing, but he's not complete garbage at it. Heart in his throat, he puts in a command sequence that he hopes will work, guided by whatever dull ache he has in his chest that could possibly pass as faith._

_It starts with Fives, but it doesn't end with him.)_

* * *

Fox comes back to himself with blood roaring in his ears and his heart pounding like he had just finished a high-speed chase. He comes back to himself feeling sick, remembering the screams of the dying and the scared, and knowing that the Republic that so many of his vod’e had died for is as dead as they are.

He comes back to himself standing behind the man he had once faithfully served - but that wasn't true, was it? Because Fox remembers now: he remembers his suspicions and the lies. He remembers every single meeting he was called to with the Chancellor, and he remembers all those orders and missions that he had once forgotten. The Chancellor - the _Emperor_ \- had always been an enemy, a diseased rat disguised as a harmless mouse.

Fox is loyal to two things: his vod’e and the Republic. But the Republic is dead, and Palpatine, blinded by his arrogance and the belief that he had won, never bothers to look as his guard lifts his blaster.

Fox is a clone, after all - nothing more than a puppet in his game. But he's also a puppet who’s strings have been cut to find that he can move on his own, and always could. He's just a clone, but it's a clone who shoots the Emperor in the back of the head, and then shoots the body on the luxuriously carpeted floor a few more times for good measure.

And spite.

The Republic is dead and now the Empire is without an Emperor, and Fox is only vaguely aware of this as, around him, his vod’e twitch, their own blasters lifting. They aren't aiming at Fox, however, instead the Guard is turning on the Senate Guards in their crimson robes, and Fox is turning on his comm to order the troopers scattered across Coruscant to take the planet and lock it down.

The throne is empty, and Fox will be damned if he lets anyone claim it.

At this point, the only person Fox would trust is a Vode and - _that’s a thought._

 _Yes_ , Fox could work with that.

* * *

Cody arrives on Coruscant with a Battlion full of shellshocked Vode, and a familiar fire in his eyes that's reminiscent of the Kote Fox remembers from Kamino, back before Kote had been taken away for reconditioning and came back as diligent, quiet Cody. Kote had been a force of nature greater than the summer storms of their home planet, filled with fire and justice and a hunger that could never be filled.

It was that very ravenous fire that had made Jango Fett himself look at an angry little cadet with broken knuckles and blood on his lips, and declare CC-2224 as “glory”.

Fox looks at his little brother, sees Kote’s fire and Cody’s diligence burning as one, and something deep in his heart soars and sings _yes_.

But Cody says no - at least, he says no until he sees the shaken remains of the 501st. He says no until he sees their shaking hands and haunted eyes as they make their way through a stilted, broken story about how the General they trusted above all else led them against the Jedi Temple. The 501st Legion would have followed their General anywhere - anywhere but against children and non-combatants who _trusted them_. Cody says no until he takes a look at the number of Vode across the Galaxy - a number that continues to fall as more and more Vode look at what they were forced to do and decide that their own blasters are a better option to living with the knowledge that it was their hands that killed the Jedi that they trusted with their lives, the Jedi that they had loved.

And Fox sees Kote’s fire in Cody’s eyes, and he sees the calculations and plans that Cody could craft in his sleep. It burns, hot and heavy, and it calls for justice, and Fox’s own desire to protect and defend rises in response. _This_ \- this is why Fox chooses Cody; he wants _better_ , he hungers for _more_ , and even if he isn't Kote anymore, those fires could never be quenched. Kote’s fire is weaponized by Cody’s utter competence, and it’s _glorious_ to witness.

The Republic is dead, but they’ll make their Empire better.


	2. (REX) Cough on the smoke.

_(Fives is killed before he gets to see the results of his desperate, cobbled-together plan. He dies with a hole in his chest, shot by a Vode, and even as his lungs burn and he coughs on the blood in his throat, he can't bring himself to hold it against Fox and the Guard. They didn't have a choice, none of them did, beholden to their orders and the Chancellor's silver tongued lies as they are, and Fives can only desperately hope that Rex listened to him where their General refused to. He can only hope that his virus activates._

_Fives dies before he gets his vengeance, cradled in his Captain's arms as his older brother begs him not to go, and he hates that he won't be able to do more. But... he's grateful too; the nightmares are over and Fives can finally march on. He can reunite with the other Dominoes, he can see Tup and beg for his baby brother's forgiveness for not saving him. He can finally hug Echo again..._

_Fives isn't afraid._

_He just hopes he did enough)_

* * *

Rex wakes up with a pounding headache. He wakes up, no longer Commander CT-7567 but Rex once more, with hands that shake as he lifts his blasters, nearly unable to hear the sound of battle over the cotton clogging his ears. As he sits up, vision blurry, his horror tastes like blood on his tongue, and he barely has time to acknowledge that his vod’e are firing on his vod’ika with the intention to kill, before Rex takes aim and shoots.

He feels a part of whatever remains of his broken, beaten heart shrivel and die as his brothers fall. His brothers fall, killed by Rex’s hands, their minds no longer their own, and Rex feels like he dies with them, but he needs to protect Ahsoka.

Ahsoka who is no longer as small and wide-eyed as she had been, but who is still painfully young, with baby fat still lining her cheeks and lekku still growing. She’s only seventeen, chronologically older than Rex, but still a child where Rex and his vod’e aren’t, and she’s already gone through so much shit in her life. He hadn’t been able to protect her from the War, from politics, or the sting of betrayal and the crushing pain of loss, but he could still protect his little sister from his brothers - their men.

The men who loved Ahsoka as much as he did, who lovingly painted their helmets to echo her markings - the men who are trying to kill her.

Even so, something in his chest lightens when Ahsoka tells him to put his blasters on stun. Together, they turn to face the next wave of his brainwashed brothers, watching the door - the only thing standing between them and possible death - protecting them slowly weaken, hearts pounding in their chests, and -

And it stops.

They barely get a moment of confusion before Rex’s internal comm crackles to life, and Jesse’s voice comes over it, small and frightened and begging for protection in only one word.

“ _Rex_?”

* * *

Somehow, Rex doesn’t know how or why, every single one of his vod’e were free. All across the ship they had frozen for the barest of moments, twitching back to life as _themselves_ once more. Dozens of them are dead, killed and mutilated in Maul’s rampage through the halls of the ship, but they’re free, and the Sith has been caught, successfully crammed back into the Mandalorian Force-suppression prison.

They can breath again, but now they’re directionless. They were supposed to be bringing Maul back to Coruscant to face justice, but the Sith had won, Ahsoka had felt it through the Force. _What do they do now?_ None of them know. It’s Rex who suggests Kamino; the chips in their heads had to have been planted by the longnecks. The scientists who made them had to know more. They _had_ to, otherwise they wouldn’t have had such an invested interest in silencing Fives.

Little gods - _Fives_.

Fives who had died in his arms, begging for someone, _anyone_ , to believe him about what had seemed like the wild conspiracy theory of a man grieving so fiercely that he had lost touch with reality. Rex can only hope that his little brother will forgive him from not listening to his warnings.

Taking Kamino is… shockingly easy considering how furiously Rex knows the Vode would protect the closest thing to a homeplanet they’d ever known - if not for Kamino, it’s definitely not for Kamino, but for the littlest Vode who live there. The 332nd Company sweeps through Tipoca City with little to no resistance, stunning Vode who lift their weapons on them, and rounding up every single scientist in the facility. Interrogating the Kaminii is even easier.

It would seem that, without a Jedi on-planet to hunt, Sidious hadn’t bothered activating the chips among the ranks of Vode still manning the facility. But it would also seem that the scientists had already begun removing the Vode who could pose the biggest threats to them, because Rex sends a team of troopers to release the Alphas and ARCs from the lower level detention facilities.

Within days of Order 66 going live, Kamino is fully under Vode control, and Rex has Tech and Echo lead a team of slicers through the Kaminoans’ files. It’s then that they discover the virus, and it’s a sobbing Echo who recognizes the digital signature.

It would seem that, even after death Fives was determined to protect his vod’e.

That’s when Rex learns about the Empire; he learns about the burning of the Jedi Temple and he holds Ahsoka as she screams out her grief as the list of dead Jedi scrolls across the screens. He learns about the Empire.

And he learns about Sidious’ fate.

The Sith Lord is dead, killed by the Coruscant Guard, and the Vode have taken control of the Galaxy. It feels like a joke, it’s ironic, and Rex laughs until he cries.

The Republic has burned, and a new Empire has built itself on the ruins.


	3. (CODY) Rise from ruin.

_(Fives dies that day, blood filling his lungs and heart stuttering. It's not the way anyone would want to die, slowly and painfully as his failing body fights to keep going, having been betrayed and hunted through the streets of Coruscant. He hasn't slept since Ringo Vinda; he's hungry and exhausted, but he's not afraid to die. He always knew that he would, though this isn't the situation he'd imagined; there's no battle, no explosions, just suffocating silence and the mournful sound of his brother's choked sobs._

_Fives dies without hatred in his heart, not for the men who killed him, but he doesn't march on. He doesn't leave, instead he lingers, intangible and invisible, unable to change things or affect the world around him. It's utter torture for the man who only ever wanted to make a difference and protect his vod'e. All he can do is watch, trapped in limbo as he is._

_Fives had died with regrets. His regrets were powerful enough to stop him from marching on._

_He kriffing hates it._

_But then things start to change.)_

* * *

Cody isn’t quite sure how it led to this - _this_ being the former Marshal Commander of the GAR sitting on the throne of a fledgling Empire built on the ruins of the Republic he had once served, Fox on his right as his Vice Chair and voice in the newly reformed Senate, and Rex, the newly elected Senator of the recently renamed Vodeyaim, at his left. He’s entrusted command of the GAR to Alpha-17, in place of Wolffe or Bly; both of his batchmates had locked themselves away in the aftermath of Order 66, and were two of thousands on suicide watch, having been used as weapons to kill the beings they cared about most in their lives. Neither would ever forgive themselves for their Generals’ deaths, and it was all they could do to be there for them, and the thousands of vod’e in the same situation.

A month ago, Cody had been nothing more than a clone, a high ranking and effective one for sure, but still just a clone; something viewed as less than sentient, bred to be obedient and docile. Just one clone among millions, and now, at Fox’s stubborn insistence, he’s the Galactic Emperor.

A month ago, he had had his mind and body stolen from him, forced to give an order he never would have otherwise and his entire sense of self wiped away like he was nothing more than a droid to be reprogrammed and - that’s not even that far off. Now, with every single one of his memories returned to him by the sleeper virus Fives had planted in the chips, he can’t help but wonder if what had happened to him hadn’t been that different.

He _had_ been reprogrammed, hadn’t he?

The chip in his head had been used to wipe away everything that had been used to wipe away everything that had once made him Kote, to reset him back to CC-2224 when he had gotten too loud, too angry, and too willing to fight back. No wonder his batchmates had been so cold and distant with him when they had been reintroduced to the docile, quiet little cadet that had once been their fiery little brother, returned to them as a mockery of who he had once been and turned into a threat of what would happen to them should they continue to rebel.

It’s… a little off-putting, now that he remembers Kote. He’s still Cody, but now he’s _more_ ; he’s more passionate, more willing to _make_ himself be heard, more willing to burn everything to the ground so that he can make things better.

He didn’t even _need_ to burn anything this time though, the Senators had managed that themselves. Sidious may have doused the Republic in fuel, but it was the Senators who had lit the flames. It’s all Cody can do to build on the ruins left behind when the smoke clears.

As much as Cody wants to be with the Vode, scouring the Galaxy to try to find any sign of Jedi who had survived Order 66; his General survived, he’s out there somewhere, and Cody knows this deep in his soul. He’s seen the message his General had left behind at the Temple, before Master Ti had changed the beacon to a speech of her own, and as much as Cody wants to drop everything and rush to his General’s side, he has to put his trust in Ahsoka and Boil to find the man Cody had nearly killed. The gaping emptiness in his life where his General once occupied, with his silly but charming accent and his beautiful eyes, begs him to go find his other half, to drop down on his knees and beg for his forgiveness, to take him into his arms and hold him, to reassure himself that his order hadn’t killed the most important person in his life.

But Cody has an Empire to run. He has a Galaxy to piece back together after years of War. The Outer Rim planets who had been impacted the worst over the course of the Clone Wars were loyal and grateful to the people who had fought for them and their planets, and the former Seperatist planets had already bowed, their leadership slaughtered on Mustafar, their armies destroyed, and with a scapegoat to blame in the bodies of Darth Sidious and Darth Vader, they had no more reason to fight.

And little gods, the knowledge of what Anakin Skywalker had become makes Cody sick - not on his own accord, because Cody had never particularly liked his General’s former padawan, and had only trusted him for Rex (not _with_ Rex, never with his vod’ika, because Skywalker was a reckless fool and Cody aged an extra decade whenever he read those mission reports) - _no_ , Cody feels sick for Rex, and Ahsoka, and what’s left of the 501st. He feels sick for Obi-Wan, because Cody has seen Vader’s burnt, limbless body, and he _knows_ that it had been his General to cut down his former apprentice, because his sense of duty would have told him that it was his responsibility to rid the Galaxy of the monster his once-Padawan had become, regardless of the fact that it would break his heart.

* * *

The former Separatists were easy; it’s the Senate that soon reveals itself as the greatest threat to the new Empire. Founded by the only standing army in the Galaxy, with millions of highly-trained members spread across the stars, no one would dare make a military move against the Vode, but Cody can’t leave Coruscant while his Empire is so young, not without risking Senators making a power grab. 

There’s unrest, people who had bought into the Sith’s propaganda, and there had been attacks on the empty Jedi Temple. The new Master of the Order had confessed to him, some time before the mob had invaded the ancient halls, that none of the young survivors - very few of them above the age of Senior Padawans, and most of them young children or toddlers who had been hidden in the Temple vaults - felt safe in their once-home, and that they couldn’t bring themselves to return to the ancient temple just yet, haunted by the knowledge of what had happened there. Rex had offered the Jedi a home on Vodeyaim for as long as they needed one, and Cody had never been more thankful for that as he had stared at the filth written on the walls of the Jedi Temple.

 _Slavers_ , _Warmongers_ , _Child Stealers_ , _Traitors_ , _Murderers_ \- and worst of all, sprayed like blood across the front doors, had been the words, _You Got What Was Coming For You_.

The hate aimed at the victims infuriated the new Emperor and every vod’e who had seen the damage, even those like Wolffe and Bly have direction in their lives again, all united in the name of vengeance. They had fought and died beside these people, they had loved them like family, and to see their once-home disrespected in such a way, so soon after the slaughter of the beings who had once filled those halls, had led to an all-consuming rage igniting in the hearts of the Vode.

It’s Fox who suggests leaking Sidious’ files onto the holonet, and it had been Fox to suggest giving the public someone else to blame in the Senators who had empowered the former Chancellor and who had looked the other way as the Sith hoarded power, carefully talking Cody away from his knee jerk reaction to pull out his blaster. Cody has never before been so grateful for his ori’vod’s compulsion to gather and hoard blackmail as he is when he get a front row seat to watching so many of the Senators that made his vod’e’s short lives a miserable hell be chased off of Coruscant in shame.

It’s therapeutic, watching their lives fall apart under Fox’s gentle manipulation and their own crimes. These are the beings who helped Sidious kill his vod’e, who stood back and let a Temple full of innocents be slaughtered.

Sidious may have given the order, but the Senators had let him.

They had _cheered_.

It’s satisfying to see those beings dragged off their pedestals after all the crimes they allowed and committed. The good ones still remain, the ones who have honestly tried to make a difference, and while Cody doubts they’ll ever trust the Vode again, they’re willing to work with them to try and fix the mess of the Galaxy Sidious had made.

* * *

Cody gets the news while he’s in a meeting with his council when he gets the message; Obi-Wan Kenobi had been found on Tatooine, and Ahsoka and Boil were bringing him back to Coruscant. He had been living in an old hut, trying desperately to look after two infants despite his own health - Pace had been spitting mad when he had taken over the call, ranting about their General’s inability to care for himself, and when the CMO had forwarded Obi-Wan’s medical records to him, Cody had been inclined to agree.

And now, he can barely contain his excitement as he strides through what had once been the GAR barracks, and was now a converted living space for the Vode who hadn’t wanted to move into different housing or leave the planet. His General is alive, and now he’s _safe_ , and Cody gets to see him again - he gets to hold him and love him again.

He can see him already, standing surrounded by tearful troopers wearing gold, looking exhausted and weary, with Ahsoka clutching his robes, and both Jedi holding a bundle each, and Cody’s heart both soars and plummets when their eyes meet.

“ _Cody_.” Obi-Wan says, voice clogged with tears, shaking and hopeful and so, so sad, and Cody is there within moments, his vod’e parting to let him pass, and he wraps his Jedi in his arms. “ _Cody_.”

His General crumbles.

And Cody - strong, diligent, reliable Cody who is also emotional, angry Kote - crumbles with him, confident and trusting in his vod’e to watch their backs as they allow themselves this one moment of open weakness. “Ni ceta.”

Their Empire is strong, it stands on the foundations laid by the Republic the Vode had died for.

And Cody lets himself be weak.


End file.
